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Love how when you are a comic fan for long enough you always eventually have one ‘obscure’ character, which can range from a side character that almost no one but you has ever heard of to like an average b lister hero with a consistent ongoing book, who you are delusionally convinced just needs that one good mainstream adaptation and they would become universally beloved and acclaimed overnight.
Catwoman: The life and times of the Feline Fatale
The thing about Dani Moonstar is, as a Native woman in Marvel Comics, I cannot begin to express how unhappy I am whenever she starts dating a white man.
Native (and Native-coded) women in media created by non-Indigenous people almost exclusively exist to serve as appendages to a white man in some capacity, but most frequently as the Chief's Daughter trope. (Yes, even when not literally, but otherwise all the check-boxes are met.)
Even if you try to argue that Dani is "equal" with Kian, the latest white (?) boy being forced down her character's throat, the larger context really sours it for me. Do I think it will be as bad as when she was paired with Nate Grey? God, I can't imagine, because that shit was atrocious. But passing a bar so low it's underground means that's not really an accomplishment.
If Dani's gotta be with a man at all for some stupid reason, put her with a Native man. Remember when she and Jimmy Proudstar had a flirty thing back in 1983 New Mutants? That was cute! Or make up some other dude that's not as bland as drywall, please.
Contrary to popular belief, Dick Grayson is not a womanizer nor some godly sex-symbol that uses his body to his advantage.
It's shown pretty often that he shuts down compliments/cat-calls (because some of them just are cat-calls) with very obvious uneasiness and awkwardness.
Some proof here:
He doesn't parade his body around and if anything, seems to have an insecurity:
(all images are taken from this post, detailing exactly why Dick is not supposed to be a sex symbol and why it goes against his character. Go give it a read !)
Now to get to the actual point of this post: Where does this insecurity stem from?
I want to preface this by saying that I, myself, haven't been able to find a concrete reasoning from the comics themselves yet — and it could be very well that I have missed it. If so, you are free to crucify and correct me in the notes.
However, I'd like to pitch in the idea that this insecurity could stem from him being a performer. As one myself (although I am more dance/theater based) I can attest to the fact that performing in any way in front of an audience during your childhood/around pre-teen age will most likely have you develop a weird relationship with your body. When each and every part of you is put on display, you will begin to obsess over it. Especially if you want your performances to be perfect. Because for a performance to be perfect everything has to be right, like your costumes and movements. And for your costumes and movements to be right, your body has to look a certain way.
And I'm not saying that he was shamed for his body in any way by his family members or his fellow circus performers, because you don't have to be, to develop a weird relationship with the way you see your body. Even an off-handed comment about your body can trigger such thinking. Just as a clarification.
Him being a vigilante also gives him enough reasons to scrutinize his body in terms of how far it can carry him and etc.
There is also the countless of catcalls and sometimes even SA he goes through that only complicates this further.
Many people have pitched the idea about him leaning into this sexualization as a way to cope, but I just don't think it is the case here. Especially since he himself actively shuts down any attempt at sexualizing him.
Anyways, just food for thought and I felt compelled to share this to see what other people think of this !
Selina Kyle Is Perfect for Bruce and... Maybe That’s the Problem
I love Selina Kyle. Honestly, I think she’s probably the best romantic partner Bruce has ever had. She doesn’t just understand Batman; she understands the compulsion, the emptiness, the obsession, the crushing weight of Gotham, and Bruce’s almost self-destructive need to keep going no matter what it costs him. Selina doesn’t idealize Bruce Wayne or ask him to stop being Batman. She knows every side of him and accepts all of it. That’s exactly why they work so well together.
But that’s also the problem.
Selina is perfect for the Bruce that exists right now: the broken, obsessive Bruce who cannot escape the cycle. And because of that, their relationship also becomes one of the biggest obstacles to his evolution within canon. If Bruce were ever allowed to truly change (to heal, to become genuinely happy, to build a stable life outside of Batman) then their dynamic wouldn’t work in the same way anymore. Their compatibility is rooted in shared darkness and in the mutual acceptance of pain.
That’s why I’ve always found it interesting that DC never fully committed to marrying them. They tried to frame it as Selina realizing that a happy Bruce would stop being Batman, and that this would somehow betray who he is. But I think there’s another possible reading there: maybe Selina herself wouldn’t be able to love Bruce in the same way if he stopped being that broken version of himself.
And I don’t mean this as criticism of Selina. I adore her. But her role in canon also functions as a way of preserving Bruce’s status quo. In contrast, Lois Lane has always supported Clark/Superman’s growth rather than limiting it. Lois helps Clark evolve. Selina helps Bruce remain the same.
[Tom King and David Finch]
i say this often and i’ll probably continue to say it — while dani is well-adjusted, do not for a single moment think that means she isn’t traumatized.
i feel like out of all the new mutants dani’s trauma is the most overlooked because it’s all internal. she has such complex emotions and inner dialogue because she refuses to let herself be weak. while everyone else get to have emotional outbursts, dani isn’t allowed to, because she’s dangerous.
she wouldn’t let herself crack because if she cracks, so does her self control, and she will never let that happen.
grant morrisons madonna/whore complex in their new x-men run and how it impacted jean/emma/scott 🧵
a meta written in a feminist perspective on the way jean grey and emma frost's dynamic is written, especially in relation to scott summers, and how gross morrison's (perhaps unintentional) use of the madonna-whore dichotomy is.
"This panel provides us with Northstar as a sort of paradigm of a superhero who is “correct,” “neat,” “sane,” etc. His presence lays plain Aurora’s “deviance.” By aligning the siblings with “correctness” and “wrongness,” “sanity,” and “insanity,” in this way, the story presents a powerful gendering of the superpowered mind. Furthermore, because both siblings have endured the same traumatic loss, they form a kind of “twin study” of trauma in the comic book genre, demonstrating that, while male heroes can remain “sane” after trauma, superwomen do not. The differences between Aurora and Northstar in this issue illustrate that the mechanism through which trauma on the comic book page operates is a clearly gendered one.”
-Cynthia Bonacum, "What Am I to Do About You? I Fear You May Be… Quite Mad:" An Exploration of the Mad Duperheroine on the Comic Book Page
